March 25, 2006

March 25, 2006

Savannah, Georgia

YEAR 2 DAY 281

 

Today was sunny, cool in the morning and evening, mild in the afternoon.

We had a great day exploring historic, old downtown Savannah.

This morning when I took Bo out for his morning walk, there was an old, black man setting up his large smoker barbecue in front of the campground on the side of the highway. He looked just like Chef on South Park. HA HA HA ! After I did preventive maintenance I wandered over to see what he was doing. He was selling smoked barbecued "buzz, rizz, and chickeh" Huh ? What ? Ribs, chickens, and what ? Oh ... butts ! Beef butts ? Like beef roasts ? "No ... poke buzz". Oh, I see ... pork butts. Okay. Geez, I'm having a hard time understanding people down here. We took Bo for an obedience training session, then left for downtown.

North on Hwy. 17, east on Victory, north on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to downtown. I found a parking spot, and we walked to the Savannah Visitors Centre. We cut through the Savannah Civic Centre, which houses Martin Luther King Jr. Arena. At the Visitors Centre, we picked up some information, and I read about the Horseless Carriage Club Of America convention in Savannah this weekend. There were going to be displays of "horseless carriage" automobiles from the late 1800's and early 1900's on display at Forsyth Park. I was interested, so I had them point out Forsyth Park on my map of downtown Savannah.

Outside the Visitors Centre we caught the free shuttle trolley operated by the City Of Savannah, that winds back and forth, all around the historic downtown area, in a large, zig zag loop. What a great, tourist friendly idea. We rode the trolley to Forsyth Park, a really beautiful 10 acre park on the south side of downtown. There were no "horseless carriages" that we could see, but walking around the park was pleasant. There were weddings taking place in the park. The homes around the perimeter of the park were huge, old Southern mansions. Fantastic, old architecture. Joanne was interested in taking a tour of the Owens-Thomas House Museum, so we got back on the trolley and rode to Owens-Thomas House.

Owens-Thomas House is "the finest example of English Regency architecture in America". Whatever that means. I was just along for the ride on this. It was an old mansion, and adjacent slave house, restored by a historical society. Joanne enjoyed it.

From Owens-Thomas House we walked about half a mile to the City Market area. I wanted to see a free concert that was part of the Savannah Music Festival that is taking place this weekend. We were hoping that as we walked to City Market we weren't going to run into the Civil Rights March that was taking place today from the Civic Centre to City Market. Busy weekend in Savannah ! City Market is a pedestrian mall area, somewhat like the Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa. The Savannah Music Festival free concert this afternoon was a blues band called Bottles 'N Cans. Great, growling blues. We decided to have lunch at City Market Cafe, which had an outdoor patio overlooking the free stage. We had a wonderful, leisurely, Southern cuisine lunch, watching and listening to the blues band. I had chicken and okra Gumbo, with a pecan chicken salad sandwich on Texas Toast. Joanne had a "Mojo Pork" and ham sandwich on Cuban bread. While eating lunch and watching the blues band, on a sunny patio, she commented on what a wonderful life we lead. I concur.

After lunch we walked about another half mile to “Riverfront”, an area of shops on old cobble stoned River Street, along the Savannah River. We walked and browsed along Riverfront for much of the afternoon. We bought a gift. We shared an exquisitely decadent cinnamon bun. We bought some rock candy lollipops in a hand made candy store. By late afternoon, when we were getting tired, we decided to catch the free trolley shuttle again, and start heading back towards where we had parked the truck some 7 hours earlier. We caught and rode the trolley back to the Visitors Centre, when I decided we should ride it around its entire circuit, to get a complete tour of historic downtown Savannah.

The free trolley circuit took about 45 minutes. We got off as we passed the Visitors Centre for the second time. WOW ! The Visitors Centre parking lot was full of antique automobiles attending the Horseless Carriage convention. We wandered around admiring these early 1900's automobiles. I took quite a few pictures. Finally, as it became dusk, we walked back to the truck parked a few blocks away, and drove back to our campground.

Bo and Teddy were elated to see us, as usual when we return from a long day out. Bo wants a bathroom walk, and Teddy wants food. We took care of them, then I sat down to do today's accounting and journal entry, while Joanne did trip planning for the next few days, as we head from Savannah, Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina. We weren't very hungry because of the late lunch, and huge cinnamon bun, so we had a late, light supper.

DSK